Command library / find

Search a directory tree for files matching criteria

Walks a directory tree and prints paths matching whatever tests you give it — by name, type, size or modification time. Unlike grep (which looks INSIDE files), find looks at file metadata and the file system itself. The starting path always comes first.

Usage

Options and flags

• path

  directory to start searching from

• -name PATTERN

  match the file name against a glob pattern (case-sensitive)

• -iname PATTERN

  like -name, but ignores case

• -type f|d|l

  only files of this type: f = regular file, d = directory, l = symlink

• -maxdepth N

  do not descend more than N levels

• -mtime N

  modified N*24 hours ago; -N means 'less than N days ago'

• -size N[kMG]

  file size, e.g. +100M means larger than 100 MB

Examples

• find /var/log -name "*.log"

  Every .log file under /var/log.

• find /home -type d

  Only directories, no files, under /home.

• find / -iname "readme*"

  Finds README, readme.txt, ReadMe.md — case ignored.

• find /etc -maxdepth 1 -type f

  Files directly in /etc, not in its subfolders.

• find / -mtime -1 -type f

  Every file modified in the last 24 hours — a fast first move after a suspected breach.

Common mistakes

Related commands